Confessions of a Kitty Stepmom

Why we should stay close to our Father: and last day to win a free purse!

January 17, 2014

Happy Friday!

A quick reminder, if you haven’t already entered to win this adorable bag from Jesus’ Economy. You can do so today by signing up for their newsletter! One winner will be selected when contest closes at 5 p.m. West Coast time, Today! If you want to read more about the amazing world wide work Jesus’ Economy is doing click here.

Now its time for another: Confession of a Kitty Step – Mom

A few weeks ago we left our 2 kitties home alone, for a week. No, they didn’t single ~~handly~~ pawdly save our home from two gangly robbers by setting traps throughout the house (at least not that we know of).

Our friends came everyday to feed our cats and play with them for a while.

When we came home, we found two excited kitties suffering from amnesia.

Apparently during the week we were gone they had forgotten all the rules set by their Dad and Mom.

Rules like:

Thou shalt not claw the brand new dining room chairs.

Thou shalt not meow outside of Mom and Dad’s bedroom door at 2 a.m…. for the REST of the NIGHT.

Thou shalt not sit on the table.

Which is where I have repeatedly found Jaxon for the past few weeks.

Jaxon knows he is not supposed to sit on the table. But he kept looking at me like he had no idea what I was talking about when I said “Jaxon off.”

The separation of a week’s time had made him conveniently forget the equation for how to live a happy kitty life:

Obey Mom and Dad’s Rules = Get kitty treats + Avoid discipline

There was something about Jaxon’s convenient amnesia, that convicted me.

Are there times I ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit? ummm…yes.

Are there times where I want something to be true about God and His Word, so I just begin to believe it is true without ever taking the time to look it up? sigh…yeah

Are there times where I pull away from my Father because I don’t want to hear what He is going to say: because it might be difficult to hear and then I have the responsibility to obey? uhhhh…guilty

Are there seasons where I lose my connection with the Father and because of my lack of connection with Him I distort His Word, His character and begin to believe what anyone says about God? been there

As humbling as it is: Jaxon and I are so similar.

When I am away from my Father:

Not spending time in the Bible, Praying, and Worshiping.

I began to choose death.

My heart is drawn toward rebellion and impurity.

When I don’t spend time with my Father, I look less and less like him.

I miss out on a lot of ~~kitty~~ treats like: joy, peace, love, patience, perseverance and self – control, and the truth

I give Jaxon boundaries because I ~~like~~ ~~tolerate….~~ okkk…. because I really do…choke… love him. I want what is best for him.

Our Father gives us boundaries because He really loves us and wants what is best for us.

When we spend time a part from our Father it becomes easier for us to believe the lies of the enemy.

“Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” Genesis 3:1

It becomes easier to question the goodness of God,

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

I am sure Jaxon may have thought, “hey mom and dad abandoned me, they aren’t here, they don’t care and I don’t know when they are coming back so I may as well just have a good time, satisfy my kitty desires and have a dance party on this table.”

Sounds like me.

Sounds like us.

When we think God has forgotten us. When we think He doesn’t notice. When we know that He may notice but know He’ll always forgive us.

Don’t be apart from your Father. You need Him.

Don’t be a part from the Words of your Father (the Bible). Your need them

We live in a culture that increasingly believes, if you think its right, than its right. If you want to do it, do it.

But the if you “think its right for you, it must be right for you” thinking has left our nation:

Killing unborn babies, having sexual intimacy without covenant marriage, entering marriage outside of God’s constructs of one man and one woman, broken families because of abuse, neglect or divorce and trafficking human beings to fuel the porn and sex trade industry.

Our “its all about me” mentality has left us:

Obsessed with building our image through selfies, air brush computer programs and online personas, full of pride, constantly comparing ourselves to other, confused about who we are and our purpose in life, and driven by a lust that is never satisfied for more: stuff, money and sex.

And this has happened for one reason: We are a nation without connection to our Father. We are a nation who has forgotten the Words of our Father.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

If you have been a part of sin in anyway, either the sin that I have listed above or any other, please hear me say: God is a God of grace! He loves you, He wants relationship with you and He gives us boundaries because He has good things for you.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:6

I am a sinner and I sin everyday. I am saved by grace alone. I am no better than anyone walking the face of this planet. I deserve to burn in the fire of hell, but instead I have received the grace and eternal life of Jesus Christ. I just need Jesus, and you do too.

If you have felt your heart drifting away from your Father over the past weeks, months or even years I am praying that this weekend you connect or re-connect your heart to Him.

For more information on knowing Jesus click here.

What about you, can you relate (like me) with Jaxon? What is one thing you can do today to connect with Jesus?

You are a person of Influence! A Lesson from my Kitties……

November 4, 2013

Jaxon

Last week I spent at least 2 hours searching for my beloved kitty step children.

Jaxon has escaped several times despite my husband’s diligent efforts to contain them by putting netting all along the top periphery of the fence. He also put stakes in the ground to cover all the holes Jaxon has dug underneath our fence.

Our backyard is not the serene oasis you might imagine. The site of wires, stakes and netting are so ugly that I find myself compulsively pulling our living room shades down to hide the hideous sight from guests.

I make excuses to not show our backyard, until I finally just open the shades to reveal our kitty prison.

Jaxon

Sparta

We want the cats to be able to play outside, their Bengal breed needs time to pounce and lounge in tall wet grass. When we don’t let them outside, they stand for hours at the back yard door meowing to be released.

As I mentioned earlier. I spent several hours searching for our cats last week. In the past there was only one escape artist between the two, Jaxon. We would constantly have to check on him because he was always escaping.

The other day, I found myself taking a brief mental hiatus from kitty patrol, because I knew that only Sparta was in the backyard.

Since Sparta had never escaped before or ever shown any signs of rebellion, I trusted her. Later I went outside to let her in because I was leaving the house. To my shock she was gone. After standing on a stool to check our neighbor’s yard, I found her. I tried to lure her over the fence with treats and received indifferent glances as she returned to her exploration of the new yard.

I realized I was going to have to get her. The neighbor’s weren’t home so I opened their fence gate. When Sparta saw me she immediately started running a speedy serpentine pattern all over the yard, so I couldn’t catch her

Annoyed and stunned by her rebellion I returned home. Shortly afterwards I found her on our back patio, sunning herself on the cement with a bemused smirk of victory. She had returned but it was on her own terms.

Proof that Jaxon is as large as a toddler!

Eventually my husband and I found her escape route, through a hole Jaxon had dug under the fence. We have caught Jaxon digging holes before, but this one was too small to fit his body, which is as large as a toddler.

This situation made me think 2 things:

1. Can we build a taller and deeper fence?

2. Our choices affect each other.

It is so tempting to walk through life and assume willfully or ignorantly that our life affects no one, and that we can make whatever choices we want, and they will only affect us.

It simply isn’t true.

Jaxon was intending to create an escape route for himself when he dug that hole, but Sparta was the one using it. I don’t understand cat psychology, but I am assuming Jaxon didn’t show Sparta his sneaky escape route and convince her to go under it that day.

Sparta made the choice to escape but the choice was easier because Jaxon had already made a way. Fortunately for Jaxon there is no eternal consequence for his leading Sparta into rebellion, but there is for us:

Romans 14: 13-15

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

Last week I worked on a craft project with a 3 year old on my dining room table. The project involved glitter. Even after cleaning up the project and wiping down my table, I keep finding glitter. I found it on the table shimmering in the grooves of wood, the floor, and on my toe.

That’s the nature of glitter, it adheres to any surface and sneaks its way into the smallest of places.

Glitter permeates the environment its placed in.

Your life is like glitter: affecting the environment you live, work and create in.

Your life is influential: who you are, what you say and what you do…

SOMEONE IS NOTICING

As believers our lives should be intentionally spreading the love and hope of Jesus.

Let’s not make a way for anyone to stumble, but let’s make a way for others to thrive and… well… I just have to say it: even SPARKLE!!!!! ….

Matthew 5:16

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Who are you influencing? Have you ever had a time where you found out someone was watching your life and you had no idea that you were influencing them?

Friday Funday!

August 23, 2013

Happy Friday!

In honor of the happiness that is…Friday…

I wanted to share with you a few fun things…

1. The winner of the Junie B. Jones book is Daniella Leonard! Congrats Daniella, and thanks for participating.

2. This is where I found Jaxon this week…

What Mom? This is where all cats hang out!

for all the exasperated parents out there (of animals or people) perhaps you can relate to the feeling of “Really! Really!” You have a cat tree and a basket of cat toys and kitty treats, but this is where you choose to spend your time! The night I found Jaxon in the sink I also found him (actually heard him)…in the dishwasher…after I had closed it…and heard him meowing.

Apparently in between the 5 seconds in which I had turned around to talk to my husband and closing the dishwasher door, he had quietly crept into the dishwasher, and hidden himself between plate racks until he got bored with the adventure and started to cry. If it hadn’t struck me as extremely hilarious to find your cat curled up in the sink, and trapped in the dishwasher in one evening, I might have been mad. But it really made me laugh, some people’s lives are interesting because of their jobs or their kids or their world wide travels, mine is interesting because of the aquatic places my cat (an animal known to hate water) turns up. I hope this pic gives you a little chuckle today!!!!!

Can anyone figure out my husband’s picture riddle? Hint: Its something FUN! (ignore the man and dog on the left. its not related to the picture riddle.)

3. Thank – you, Thank-you! To everyone who commented for the first time this week (and for all of you who regularly comment!) Commenting to a blogger is like a tip to a barista, not required, but gives you a little extra encouragement and motivation to keep creating, dreaming and writing!!!!!!

4. I feel like there could be some other “Type – A, Fixer, Doer, Feeler, Burden Carriers” out there that need to hear what God whispered to my heart yesterday…as I felt the weight of other people’s sorrows and struggles coming to crush me.

You don’t need to be their Savior, I need you to just be obedient. (to whatever He says to do, not do, say or not say)

Thank you Jesus!…His reminder that I am not enough but He is, makes this a very FUN FRIDAY!!!!!

Kitty Houdini

August 6, 2013

As many of you know, I am the mother to two cats. Technically, I am only their step mother as I begrudgingly accepted partial responsibility for these 2 mischievous felines when we got married. My husband in an attempt to preserve my sanity, had built an additional barrier of wire netting at the top of our backyard to allow the cats some time outdoors and me some time indoor without the pitter pattering of curious kitty paws following me around the house.

The extra barrier has worked well until the other day when Jaxon’s natural curiosity had morphed into outright rebellion as he swatted down the wire netting and escaped over our fence.
We found him in the neighbors yard to our right, the next night it was the opposite neighbor’s yard we caught him in. Even the loud barks from the yard directly behind us had not hindered his exploration expedition as we found him there.

Our concern grew, as a friend who lives nearby told us that she had seen Jaxon walking down the sidewalk on a road near our house, apparently Jaxon had been living a double life. House cat by day – con artist by day and night. We had no idea how often he had been roaming the streets and were unsure how to prevent his escape. Jaxon was sentenced to house arrest and not allowed outdoors, until my husband could find a more secure barrier for him.

Jaxon’s distress grew with every passing hour he was not let outside, as did mine. His constant meows and glances of longing out the window panes eventually turned into a continual howl of distress all day long. He listlessly wandered between the front and back door staring at the bars of his prison and yelping with shrieks that probably made our neighbors suspect we were starving him.

Nothing would stop his pathetic and might I add ANNOYING yelps. I tried to reason with my inmate, “Jaxon you could be outside right now, but you have been rebellious and we can’t trust you outside right now, because you may escape and meet a cat knapper or a neighborhood dog bully. Then you would really have something to cry about.”

Finally Jaxon’s day of liberation came, I am not sure who was more excited, me or him. I relished in his house arrest being over for a whole 15 minutes, because that is all it took for Jaxon to yet again tear down the netting at the top of our fence and escape into the neighbor’s yard.

My husband came home to find a half crazed wife, pleading to fix the fence after a long day of enduring meow choruses from both cats whose only entertainment was to chase a fly in our house, and rattle the bars of their prison cell ….. did I say bars?…. I meant the blinds on our windows.

My husband fixed the fence. A sense of peace has flooded the house again, the inmates released and I am still recovering from the steady soundtrack of feline choruses. I used to think living in absolute silence would be torture, I was wrong…. living with absolute meows is torture.

Jaxon’s persistence reminds me of my relationship with God. There are so many times when He tells me No, or I don’t get something I want. And I throw a fit. I mean a week long, human meow fest kind of fit. I gaze out the window at whatever it is I want and I complain to God in my own annoying chorus of “why? Why? WHY?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Over and over again I plead with God, and accuse Him of being mean and withholding something good from me.

I join Eve in the garden looking at the fruit, and I think that I know what is best for me. And that God doesn’t. I think if I don’t have something I want then He is cruel and mean.

I am not a kitty mind reader, but I am pretty sure somewhere between meow and MEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! They were saying “hey mean lady, you are cruel and uncompassionate, you are keeping us under house arrest to torture us.” When the truth was I was keeping them in house arrest (and enduring my own torture) because I had their highest good in mind. My kitties can’t understand that the fence wasn’t fixed yet, and that allowing them into the neighbor’s yards and into the streets unsupervised could result in their death or serious injury. It was my…gasp…love for the kitties that kept them locked inside.

My actions were a small reflection of God’s love for me and for all His children.

Often we feel stuck and we look to God to give us something yet we still experience pain or don’t get the breakthrough we long for. We become certain if only we had “that”, that object, that job, that person, that child, that paycheck, that degree, that life – that we would be happy.

But we don’t see what He sees. Some of the things we want could be dangerous , they could lead to our serious harm or even our death – either of our bodies or souls.

I felt this way so often as a single woman. I believed that my desire for marriage was from the Lord, I believed He had promised me that I would get married. Yet, I couldn’t understand why wasn’t it him, or him or even him! Why didn’t he ask me out, why didn’t that work out with that guy? Every wedding invitation, I received in that period of intense longing seemed to confirm what Eve believed, that God didn’t know what He was doing, and He was withholding something good from me.

He would whisper to wait, to trust Him, He would assure me that He was in control and He had the best for me.

Sometimes I believed him, some days I howled like Jaxon, and then I would try to control the situation and take matters into my own hands. That always led to disaster. Regardless of my response, God’s character was unwavering, He was committed to my best, even when I acted like I didn’t want it.

I am so thankful to Him, for His sovereignty, His commitment to my life, His never failing love even when I was a pathetic sniveling mess. In His time, His way, in a way so crazy I couldn’t have imagined, He brought my beloved, my husband and the one I was made to be with.

It was worth all those years of “House arrest” now if only I could make a certain cat understand that…..

What about you – Can you think of a time when you felt God was withholding something good from you only later to realize in His love He was protecting you?

A Kitty, A Pitbull and A Miracle

July 17, 2013

I think a miracle just happened! It did not seem like a very miraculous moment at the time. We were sitting at our dining room table playing settlers of catan with a few friends (my husband and I are a little obsessed with this game, any other fans out there?) Jaxon (our male cat) was outside in our backyard, sitting on top of our firepit (unlit of course).

We heard a loud crash outside and we all jumped a little, “what was that?” we all wondered. My husband jumped up to find out. I love my husband’s protector nature! As he opened the door that leads from our dining room to the backyard, he saw the neighbor’s pitbull lunge from across our backyard towards Jaxon. My husband yelled and was about to grab a lawn stake to use in self defense, when the pit bull decided to leave the scene. Rene brought a very scared kitty inside, as we all stared in horror. He set Jaxon down, and Jaxon kept lunging for the door with a “let me at him!” attitude. We also had to grab Sparta (our female cat) who now wanted to go outside to check on all the commotion. Apparently she had never heard the expression “curiosity killed the cat!”

We found that Jaxon had some hair missing and one of his paws was bleeding. My husband went outside to investigate the crime scene and left me and my friend with instructions to dip Jaxon’s paw in cornmeal to stop the bleeding.

My husband just knows these things…cat’s paw bleeding..dip it in cornmeal….oh of course why didn’t I think of that. I had been wondering if a band aid would work on his kitty paw.

While we dipped Jaxson’s paw in cornmeal (he did not like it!), my husband found that the pit bull had broken through our fence and another neighbor’s fence to get through to our backyard. My husband called the cops and unfortunately there wasn’t anything they could do about the situation because the pit bull hadn’t hurt a person.

Some peculiar thoughts began to race through my brain, “pets are people too!” and “how dare the cops not be able to stand up for a member of our family!” I was absolutely overwhelmed with how protective I felt over Jaxon and how outraged I was at this pitbull.

My surprise grew the next day when Jaxon was just not acting like himself. When I came out of our bedroom in the morning instead of him meowing incessantly and head butting my leg, while circling around me and following me all over the house, I found him laying on the couch. He barely lifted his head when I walked into the living room and looked at me with a glazed expression. He looked so mournful and pitiful. My compassion welled further when we found him after church, laying on top of our kitchen cabinets, the highest point in our house, just staring at the back door with a mix of horrific paranoia. He laid up there for hours on end, sometimes curling up to sleep and other times hanging his head pitifully off the end staring at the door then looking at us as if to say “do you know what I have been through?” I felt like my child had come home from school with a black eye and told me that the classroom bully had punched them for no reason.

It was as if Jaxon’s kitty innocence was gone, he had believed that life was full of cat food, cat nip, long naps in the sun and following around his “Dad and StepMom” meowing for attention. But that night he realized that the world was full of enemies, namely pitbulls that wanted to kill him, and I could see the weight of the realization upon him. Like the day I realized all adults weren’t trustworthy, like the day my elementary school friends decided to avoid me on the playground for no reason I could understand. It was the day that innocence died.

It was also the day that I realized I may have begun this journey as a begrudging kitty step mom, but I really loved these cats and I would have been absolutely devastated if one of them had gotten hurt. I also wanted to protect them from the dangers of the world.

I felt my heart changing, I felt a small miracle leap forth, maybe I was made to be a kitty stepmom.

Maybe, just maybe we can make this work…..

What to do???? When your CAT is TWO!!!!!!!!

June 26, 2013

Its time for my latest…Confession of a Kitty Step Mom….

Jaxon: “I laugh at your attempts to destroy me with mere water!”

Our two Bengal cats are going through the most obnoxious terrible two’s! And I am afraid they might be in that stage permanently. At least Sparta is semi scared of the water bottle. So when she sees me pull it out she will normally run away and hide. Jaxon who is the most un-cat like cat, of all the cats I have ever met, actually seems to enjoy when I directly spray his face with water. Somedays, this is what I do…. ALL DAY….

I am working in the kitchen, making dinner, washing dishes, cleaning ect…

Jaxon sneaks in the kitchen (he is NOT ALLOWED in the kitchen or on the counters…because I think its gross to have animal hair near your food!) I get out the spray bottle and spray him, he shakes his head around in it for a few seconds…apparently enjoying the refreshment I have provided, leaves the kitchen, licks his skin and then sneaks back into the kitchen.

Now I realize that unloading the dishwasher is a fascinating feat , but really why does he feel the need to tromp into the kitchen and stick his face in the dishwasher? Its like he is hoping I will turn it on so he can get a larger spray of water than my water bottle provides!

And, why is he obsessed with trying to sneak into the bathroom and to hop in the bathtub? I am faced with the quandary of either inhaling a large dose of toxic fumes because I have to keep the bathroom door shut or keep the door open and play kitty bouncer to police the entrance of the tub while I scrub the toilet.

“What! You found my hair and paw prints in the kitchen?!!! But I would never go in there without first asking your permission, oh most gracious Kitty Step Mom!”

As a full time housewife and blogger, I work from home and deal with a constant soundtrack of kitty whines. Kitty whines to go outside, kitty whines to eat and kitty whines that begin about 5 p.m. and do not end until their “Dad” walks through the door. Some days I “create” an errand to run, so I can leave the house… Because I can’t make the 24/7 Meow Meow Mix commercial stop!

I have googled, “how to discipline cats” and “how to train cats” about a million times. Do you know what most sites recommend? ????….. water bottles… that’s right…. Jaxon’s favorite activity is supposed to be a form of punishment for cats!

So I ask you, Oh wise blog readers for…. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! How would you “train” my cats? Any cat lovers out there with some great advice? Or other pet owners with some nifty tricks?

Are you smarter than a Cat?

May 30, 2013

Confessions of a Kitty Step Mom….

Jaxon

It was week one of being a kitty stepmom to these 2 Bengals. We were off to a rough start. Already I had yelled at the cats to “Get out, get off, get away” a few…million…. times. I had lint rolled my couch and my black yoga pants daily and I wondered how was it possible to walk through the house, not sitting on any furniture, and by the time I had sat down in my car see strands of white hairs stuck to my clean black yoga pants. So…gross….

The cats seemed to have invaded every part of my life, every part but our master bedroom where I absolutely refused to let the cats in. I needed somewhere at least one room where I could hang my jewelry and leave my shoes laying out without being concerned about a little kitty claw breaking or scratching. It was a rough transition for the kitties, who on the day they gained a kitty stepmom lost their bed, as they had lived their entire lives sleeping under the bed in the master bedroom.

This new “rule” didn’t stop them from trying to get back into “their room.” Being a new, naïve kitty stepmom, I didn’t realize how determined cats can be to sneak into places you don’t want them. I had just walked into our bedroom and in a millisecond, Jaxon, from several feet down the hall heard the door open and had lept from one end of the hall and dived through the open door and under the bed. I tried everything I could think of, I commanded Jaxon to “Get out!,” I lured him with the sweetest cat lover “here kitty, kitty” voice I could muster. He definitely wasn’t buying that one. I even tried to bribe him with a kitty treat. He wasn’t budging. He sat under our bed far enough away that I couldn’t reach him, but close enough to taunt me with haughty kitty eyes his smirk saying “this is my bed, my room and I’m not leaving!”

Sparta

Knowing my husband wouldn’t be home from work for hours but not wanting to leave the door open, for fear that Sparta might also sneak in, I racked my brain for how to lure him out. I tried to think of anything he didn’t like. “The guitar!” I thought, “Jaxson always runs out of the room whenever my husband starts to strum the guitar!” I ran and got the guitar and knelt down and strummed a few chords. Jaxon looked at me with a bemused gaze as if to say “ don’t you have anything better to do then serenade a cat under your bed?” “Yes, of course I do!” I thought and panicked momentarily realizing I needed a new idea.

I stood up, breathing deeply and gave myself a little pep talk, “I am a college graduate, I have a master’s degree and I have opposable thumbs…. I am smarter than a cat!” And then I remembered, I had never seen Jaxon so filled with terror then when my husband vacuumed. So I grabbed the vacuum and walked triumphantly into the bedroom. I turned on the vacuum and shoved it as far under the bed as I could. But nothing! Jaxon only moved further underneath the bed towards the center. Warding off my growing frustration, I reminded myself that “I WAS SMARTER THAN A CAT!” and devised a new scheme. I would leave the vacuum with headlights blazing and motor on pointing under the bed and I would close the bedroom door. I left hoping that I the noise would drive him to the edge of his catlike instinct to wear down humans with tenacious stubbornness. I opened the door fifteen minutes later and found a defeated Jaxon, shoulders slumped, head low, he quickly darted out of the room leaving his arch nemesis, the vacuum, behind. Leaving one victorious kitty step mom, to celebrate a small victory…for Jaxon had learned that this was no ordinary kitty stepmom he had, she was Smarter than a Cat!

Jaxson treated me differently from that day on. For one thing, he didn’t seem as eager to enter my “kitty free zone.” And when I tell him to do something he does it…..about 50% of the time…I mean he’s still a cat, I’m still just a kitty stepmom not the cat whisperer. We’re working towards that 100% but for now I will rest on the laurels of my victory. And continue to prove that I am smarter than a cat!!!!!!!

Do you have pets? What kind? What is your favorite pet story?

Confessions of a Kitty Stepmom

May 20, 2013

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) I thought I had experienced what it meant to die to myself. I have been on overseas missions trips, I moved to a different city to help start a church, and worked with inner city kids while sacrificing a lot of time, money and sleep to be a part of various ministries I felt God calling me too. I really thought I understood a lot about dying to myself, until I got married….

I know what you’re thinking, oh its a blog post about how refining it is to love your husband when he leaves the toilet seat up. Wrong, actually I am not even sure if my husband leaves the toilet seat up…I’ll have to check next time and report back…ha, ha…just kidding…

No, my refinement has come from two very hairy creatures, one large, one small, one cute, and one who reminds me of a wild tiger, two little voices that stand at my bedroom door every morning whining for their breakfast and a little attention …two little ones, I inherited the day I said “I Do”…yes, my husband brought children into our marriage…

Here they are…

Thrilled to be a Christmas Elf…Sparta (I call her Sparta Bean.)

Now, I know what are you’re thinking, “Those spots! How beautiful!” “Wow are those really ???“ Yes, they are bengals …and yes they are worth a small fortune!…a small fortune I found out about when we were having a new couple over for dinner…a fortune so vast I wanted to gasp and scream when I first heard the sum spent…but because I was in the presence of virtual strangers…I gasped, lost consciousness for a brief second and then told everyone we could start eating our tacos..

Looking more like a wrestler than Santa…Jaxon (I call him Jaxy Poo)

My husband bought the cats before we were dating…actually…. correction he bought them after I broke off our dating the first time (yes, God has a funny way of making us pay for our mistakes sometimes). My payment for being dumb enough to break up with my future husband is a lifetime of being…..the “Kitty Stepmom”

Let’s start with Jaxon.

Who needs a guard dog when your kitty has fangs!

Our relationship had a very rocky beginning. One of the first times I hung out with Jaxon I decided to sit with my feet under a blanket on the couch, unbeknownst to me Jaxon is an avid hunter of all things blanketed. This time it was my feet who were his prey, and his claws drew blood on my foot. There were some other claws that wanted to draw blood at that moment, mine!…but not wanting to get in a cat fight…with an actual cat…I just shrieked and said “Ow” a lot and Rene locked Jaxon in another room. In fact that happened a lot in our dating days, I came over and Jaxon would get locked in his room. Its no wonder that Jaxon has proved to be my most difficult “Kitty step child.”

After we got married and I became the queen of the casa, Sparta seemed to feel the need to remind me that she was the original queen of the casa.

Queen Sparta Bean

Every time I turn around she is climbing something to be at the highest point in the room where she will perch, her head held high, looking down upon me her lowly kitty step Mom to remind me that she is the queen of the casa. I don’t mind her perching so much its just her whining in the morning that is so ANNOYING…err ummm….I mean… refining to me. See, I expect to be awoken before my alarm, if I had a rooster in my back yard, or a newborn down the hall, but not because I am the stepmom to a cat. What she needs so desperately in the morning, I can’t even begin to understand. She barely even nibbles at the breakfast I give her when I finally drag myself out of bed. I think she just wants me to be awake because she’s awake. Actually, I am getting quite good at sleeping through her incessant meows, which is good for now, maybe not so good when I have a real child.

Rene and I’s first fight as a dating couple was over the cats, and there have been many more. They have all come down to this: I don’t like the cats, and Rene likes the cats. I think they are pesky, annoying and hairy, Rene thinks they are fun, lovable and cuddly. Rene has bonded with the cats, I would rather bond with a gorilla.

Then one morning the Lord really convicted my heart about the cats. How I was complaining about them, talking meanly to them and whining about the role of care taker I had in their life. He told me the best way I could love Rene was to love the cats! “What Lord!, “ you are telling me the best way to love my husband is to love the cats! That is ludicrous! What about making his favorite meal, what about kisses, or doing his laundry, maybe I could leave an encouraging note in his car? Really…really….!!!!!” But I knew I needed too. If I showed love to the cats, I would be showing love to my husband, by valuing something he valued.

Now I know, every time I change Sparta’s water, scratch Jaxson’s belly speak in a sweet tone to them (although I cringe because it sounds like a weird cat lady) I am laying down my life, one cat at a time.

Do you have pets? What kind? In what way do you think God is asking you to lay down your life today?

Enter the giveaway. Subscribe to Jesus’ Economy’s Newsletter.

Now its time for another: Confession of a Kitty Step – Mom